Public Leadership Credential

Policy Design and Delivery:

A Systematic Approach COURSE A OUTLINE
This course will equip you to design, analyze and recommend policies that create change in the world. You will learn
essential techniques and frameworks while working on real policies from around the world and a personal policy
challenge of your own choosing. Whether you work in government, the private sector, non-profits, activism,
entrepreneurship, or community organization, this course will empower you to design policy solutions to help create
the type of world in which you want to live. The course follows a “policy design arc” that begins with tools for
identifying the roots of a policy problems and then designing an effective policy. An effective policy is one that will
achieve the intended results, is politically feasible, and implementable. You will learn how to compare different
policy options, consider the tradeoffs of each one, and then succinctly recommend the option most likely to succeed.

Topic Content Assignments

Normative frames: the value-based Individual assignments

viewpoints that shape policy work • Writing assignment
• Quiz
Foundations for Strengths and challenges of three • Discussion
Week 1

Policy Design policy actors: the market, the

government, and civil society Group assignments
• Synchronous hour meeting
Three criteria for a policy to succeed • Group assignment

Framework: the strategic triangle

Problem diagnosis: identifying and Individual assignments

mapping failures and root causes • Writing assignment
What is the • Case analysis
Week 2

Using problem diagnosis to detect • Discussion

Underlying points of leverage for policy
Problem? solutions Group assignments
• Synchronous hour meeting
Tool: Ishikawa diagram • Group case analysis

Challenging preconceptions and Individual assignments

evaluating a policy’s technical • Writing assignment
correctness • Case analysis
• Quiz
Week 3

Mapping causal links between policy

What Could Impact
interventions and outcomes, and
the Problem? selecting good indicators
Using models in a complex world
Group assignments
• Synchronous hour meeting
• Group case analysis

Tools: Theory of change / log-frame

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 Topic Content Assignments

Systematically evaluating sources of Individual assignments

formal and informal authorization • Writing assignment
for policy approval/implementation • Case analysis
Week 4

Who Are the Key • Quiz

Influencers? Background on comparative politics
and types of political institutions Group assignments
• Synchronous hour meeting
Framework: Stakeholder analysis • Group case analysis

Assessing practical and structural Individual assignments

concerns of policy implementation • Writing assignment
in the context of organizations • Case analysis
Week 5

Can You Implement • Quiz

Insights from institutional theory on
the Policy? implementation capacities
Framework: Evaluating
implementation capacity
Group assignments
• Synchronous hour meeting
• Group case analysis

Structured comparison of policy Individual assignments

solutions across strategic triangle • Writing assignment
• Discussion
Making tradeoffs in service of
Week 6

Making a Policy selecting the best policy solution Group assignments

Recommendation • Synchronous hour meeting
Effective communication of policy • Group peer consultations
recommendations to stakeholders

Tool: Policy matrix

Materials
All course materials will be provided each week, including videos, readings, and assignment templates.

This course examines global cases from across sectors to help you understand policy design. Examples include rural
poverty in India, carbon taxation in Canada, a public private partnership in the U.S.A., and education in Kenya.

Scoring
You will not receive a letter grade in this course. Instead you will receive Pass or No Pass based on your performance.
A small percentage of exceptional performers are recognized with Pass with Distinction. Scoring weights:
35% - Individual assignments 15% - Participation
30% - Group assignments 5% - Community credit
15% - Quizzes

Course Policies
See onlinelearning.hks.harvard.edu for full FAQs.

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